Only the government can be so predictably scary. I recognize the threat, but those in power (regardless of stripe) are so intent on ”protecting” us that they continue to work towards a magic spying technology that will allow them to catch every threat to their power from terrorists to peace activists. The (hopefully) suspended data-mining program created in the name of “homeland security” is only one of the manifestations of the strange mix of Orwellian and Huxlerian dystopia our leaders are trying to create.
The Homeland Security Department scrapped an ambitious anti-terrorism data-mining tool after investigators found it was tested with information about real people without required privacy safeguards.
The department has spent $42 million since 2003 developing the software tool known as ADVISE, the Analysis, Dissemination, Visualization, Insight and Semantic Enhancement program, at the Lawrence Livermore and Pacific Northwest national laboratories. It was intended for wide use by DHS components, including immigration, customs, border protection, biological defense and its intelligence office.
Pilot tests of the program were quietly suspended in March after Congress’ Government Accountability Office warned that “the ADVISE tool could misidentify or erroneously associate an individual with undesirable activity such as fraud, crime or terrorism.”
Let’s hope that the Department of “Homeland Security” gives up on their Orwellian fantasiees and this program has not simply been pushed under the radar. I thought only Hollywood villains were well-funded yet still incompetent. Shouldn’t there be more outcry at crap like this?
